General Motors CEO Mary Barra’s decision to put the company’s European operations on the block marks a turning point for the automaker that once prided itself on being the No.

1 vehicle maker in the world.

If Barra succeeds in concluding a deal with French automaker Peugeot SA -- and people familiar with the discussions cautioned on Tuesday that many details are yet to be settled -- she will have delivered in an unexpected way on her promise to have GM “disrupt ourselves” rather than wait to be jolted by outside forces.

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Actually, It's probably much more tactical. the USA and China is where it's at. Not Europe. Opel is hardly profitable in the European market where production excess drives profits down or worse causes losses. Ford and VW are still viable for now as European brands, but PSA, Renault, and FCA are all in precarious positions relative to Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai-Kia. Selling Opel and precipitating the total implosion of PSA is too delicious to contemplate. Mary Barra is clever. Maybe she will offer De Nysschen to PSA to sweeten the deal.

First of all -GM intends to remain on the continent as a small player through Cadillac/Camaro/Corvette - so even if they sell Opel - they will not be leaving. However - all these things are cyclical - and eventually - the US economy will falter and Europe will recover.

Without OPEL - its smaller engines and platforms - GM would not have recovered in the rest of the world as quickly as it has. So keeping Opel was logical at the time. Now that GM has the newest platforms - it has less dependence on Opel - and Opels costs are high due to being in Germany. I really believe this will still be a cooperative agreement between PSA and GM - not a buyout though.

I guess GM believe they have sufficient technology/engineering in their other unit for smaller cars (Daewoo?) if the market does revert back to those cars so let's unload a loss maker now and improve the cashflow to invest elsewhere.

Building (non luxury) cars in Europe is a losing proposition. The super strict labor laws and high wages make it difficult to make money. GM would be well served to ditch the opel/vauxhall brands and then re enter the european market with the Chevrolet brand with the next gen Corvette as a halo car and american/korean made vehicles. Chevrolet already has brand recognition as the uniform sponsor of Man United.

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